Fla. College Allegedly Discriminates Against Gay Student for ’Looking Like a Girl’

An openly gay student at a Florida university says the school's library refused to let him check out a laptop because he "looks and sounds like a girl," reports WCSH, NBC's affiliate station in Portland, Fla.

Abdul Asquith, a senior at Florida Atlantic University, says he was turned away on Wednesday when he wanted to check out a school laptop from the college's library in order to study for his communications class.

"She looked down at the ID, and said, 'You sound, look, and act like a girl and in this ID is a man, therefore I'm not giving you a laptop,'" Asquith said of the library official.

According to Think Progress, the student also said, "It looks just like me. I identify with my ID. I wasn't there dressed up. I didn't have on a dress. I wasn't dressed in character."

WCSH reports Asquith was wearing a Florida Atlantic University hoodie, shorts and his long hair was pulled back. According to Think Progress, the student says he sometimes wears feminine clothes and that this incident "would constitute discrimination based on his perceived gender identity, demonstrating how comprehensive nondiscrimination protections are important for all communities."

Asquith had to ask three different librarians before he could get a laptop.

A gay teen who was suspended by the Birdville Independent School District in Texas after ripping out pages of his Bible to protest anti-gay bullying got some help when the American Humanist Association filed a complaint on his behalf.